A Daydream Believer and a Homecoming Queen
by Mayqueen
Summary: A H/G pure fluff story. When Harry doesn't have a date for his graduation ball, who does he look to? Who else but his best friends little sister. Please read and review.


To A Daydream Believer And A Homecoming Queen  
  
  
  
Disc: Nothing belongs to me. I wish it did. But if wishes were Ferraris, beggars would drive.  
  
  
  
"What the hell?" said Harry kicking the rock hard.  
  
Hermione gave him a shocked look, but Ron just laughed. "Really, Harry. I know you're stressed about the Graduation Ball, but I really wouldn't get so bothered. You'll get a girl easily enough."  
  
"Easy for you to say." Sulked Harry. "Everyone knows that you and Hermione are together. You don't have a problem getting a date."  
  
Ron looked shocked. "You knew?"  
  
Harry rolled his eyes. "I knew before you did, you bloody idiot. You've fancied her since fourth year, and she's fancied you right back. I think it's very cute and all that, but could we get back to my problem now?"  
  
Ron looked at his best friend appraisingly. Harry was like another brother, and Ron tended to be a little biased, but not even Harry's worst enemy could say that Harry was ugly, or even that he was plain. After a sudden growth spurt, Harry was now nearly Ron's height, approaching 6'2. His body had the lean, toned look of the athlete. In a spurt of madness during the holidays, Harry, Ron and the twins had gone to the muggle barber, and suddenly their hair looked very different. In Harry's case, it was a close cut, which had made Hermione exclaim that he looked like Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible. Though Ron didn't understand the reference, Harry blushed and looked very pleased. With his beautiful emerald green eyes, behind rimless spectacles, and a kind smile, he was by far the best- looking boy in their year. Almost every girl had asked him out at least once. There was just one little problem. He was incredibly finicky when it came to women.  
  
"What was wrong with that pretty Ravenclaw you went out with last month?" asked Hermione resignedly.  
  
"Her laugh was so irritating," said Harry with a shudder. "I mean, every time she laughed, I thought the ceiling was going to come down."  
  
Ron rolled his eyes. "Harry, listen to yourself. You've dated six girls in the last one year, and your reasons for dumping them – her hair was too rough, her nose was too large, her skin was too pimply, her teeth were too big, her voice was too loud and now her laugh is so irritating. Then you have the cheek to say that you have problems getting dates."  
  
Harry looked suitably abashed. "Well, Ron, to tell you the truth, they were all lovely people and I'm just making excuses to avoid commitment."  
  
Hermione shot him an exasperated glance. "Then why, for gods sake, must you be so choosy?"  
  
Harry shrugged. "Well, Herm, Sirius has told me so many times about how happy my dad was with my mom, and I guess I want that kind of joy. Nobody I've ever dated gives me the feeling of contentment, the sense of wanting to wake up next to that person every day of my life. Call me a dreamer, but I just don't want to settle for less." Then he added wistfully, "You guys have that, and I guess I'm a little jealous."  
  
Hermione slipped an arm around Harry's shoulder, and Ron awkwardly patted him on the back. Ever since Harry had shifted in with Sirius in their sixth year, Harry's life had become happier, but when he talked about his parents, they could still sense the loss in his voice.  
  
"Anyway," said Harry, cheerfully, "You guys aren't helping. I am the head-boy and I can't go for the ball without a date, and I'll be damned if I'll take Parvati again. So what do I do?"  
  
"Well, you could always ask Goyle. I bet he doesn't have a date." Said Ron, flashing his friend a wicked grin.  
  
"Oh no, he couldn't. Haven't you heard? It's the news of the century. Goyle is going to the ball with Millicent Bulstrode." Returned Hermione.  
  
Harry groaned. "Even Goyle has a date. Shoot me."  
  
Laughing, the three of them went back to the castle, none of them noticing the pair of pensive eyes that followed them in.  
  
********  
  
  
  
"Earth to Ginny Weasely, Earth to Ginny Weasely. Come in Ginny" said Colin Creevey, waving his hand in front of his best friends face. Shaking herself from her reverie, Ginny turned on her back and looked at Colin, who was calmly tickling her with a strand of grass.  
  
"What do you want, Colin?" she asked grumpily.  
  
"I want to know who you're going to the ball with. Tell me already."  
  
"I've told you once if I've told you a hundred times, I am not going with anyone to the Graduation Ball. I'm single, and blissfully so."  
  
"Impossible." Said Colin decisively. "Justin and I both agree that if anyone in this school could persuade us to drive on the other side of the road, it would be you. And if we've noticed it, then straight guys must have."  
  
"I never said no one asked me. I just said I never accepted anyone."  
  
"Oh, acting all feisty, are we? Well, my dear Gin, you may think I'm blind, but I'm not."  
  
"What do you mean?"  
  
"Well, if you thought I didn't see the longing glances you were shooting at a certain yummy Gryffindor, then you're sadly mistaken."  
  
"If you mean Harry, I'm sure he's already taken."  
  
"Well, if you must know, he isn't." said Justin Finch-Fletchley, dropping down beside them. "I know that for a fact, because it was all the Hufflepuff girls could talk about all day."  
  
"See, Gin, you've got a chance." Said Colin with, what was meant to be, a reassuring smile.  
  
"No I don't." whined Ginny. "I don't have a hope in hell. Why would Harry Potter, boy who lived, savior of the Wizard World, and one of Witches Weekly's nominees for Most Charming Wizard, be interested in dating me?"  
  
Colin looked at her, wondering how she could be so absolutely oblivious of her good looks. She had the Weasely height, being almost 5'9, combined with a slim sensuality all her own. The fiery red hair had been toned down to a rather striking shade of auburn, and fell below her shoulders in a layered cut. The skin was magnolia fair, the kind that tends to bruise easily. The eyes were surprisingly dark, the color of bitter chocolate, framed with long black lashes. Not even her best friend would have called her beautiful, but not even her worst enemy could deny that she was compellingly attractive. There were lovelier girls in Hogwarts, but Ginny was the most striking. Colin had to repeatedly ward panting guys away from her. However, she always took compliments with slight distaste, so Colin refrained from telling her anything.  
  
Justin was less circumspect. "Have you looked in a mirror lately, girl? I can't think of a single guy who wouldn't want to walk in to the Graduation Ball with you on his arm. I heard Ernie moaning this morning about how you rebuffed his advances. Anyone would want you."  
  
"Yeah, everyone, but Harry, damn his eyes, Potter. He's spent every other vacation at my house. He is best friends with my brother. He talks to me pretty often in school. But he doesn't seem to have seen whatever it is you guys are talking about."  
  
"Well, his loss, doll." Said Justin easily.  
  
"Yeah, wish I agreed. I need some alone time, guys, and I bet you do too, so I'll just troop off for a walk." Ginny got up and strolled away from them, gazing longingly as the other two talked, completely absorbed in each other.  
  
*******  
  
"Only two days to go." Said Harry flopping down on the queen sized bed in the room that was his due as Head-boy. "Only two days, and I have no one to go with, and I have nothing to wear, and I have no idea of what to say as Valedictorian. Someone help me."  
  
"Now, Parvati doesn't seem so bad, does she?" Said Hermione caustically.  
  
"I can't even ask her. She's going with Dean. My last hope gone. What do I do, Herm? I can't be the first head-boy in a century to go to Graduation sans a date."  
  
Hermione looked at her friend, a smile playing on her lips. "Well, I have an idea, but I'll only voice it if Ron promises not to kill me."  
  
Ron looked at his girlfriend suspiciously, but nodded reluctantly.  
  
"Well." Continued Hermione, "Ginny doesn't have a date, and I bet she doesn't want to go alone, so why don't you and Ginny go together. As friends!" she added hastily, with one glance at Ron's lowering face.  
  
"That's an idea, Herm." Said Harry, thoughtfully, sitting up.  
  
"My baby sister." Said Ron wrathfully. "How could you even consider it, Harry?"  
  
"Oh, can it Ron. She's only a year younger than us, and if she doesn't object, I see no reason for you to interfere." Said Hermione coolly.  
  
Harry cut in. "Guys, relax. As Herm said, we'll just be going as friends. O.K., Ron?"  
  
"Yeah, all right. But if you do anything to her, Harry, I will personally put a poker through your head to your stomach, pull out your intestines through your nostrils, plait them around you head, tie them to your testicles and hang you upside down in the Gryffindor common Room. You savvy?"  
  
Looking rather impressed at this almost poetic flow of invective, Harry nodded, while Hermione looked deeply disapproving.  
  
"Well, then I'll talk to Ginny and let you know what she has to say." Said Hermione exiting from the room, while the two boys remained, Harry asking Ron where he picked the line up, and if he intended to use it with all Ginny's prospective boyfriends.  
  
********  
  
"I'm going to the Ball with Harry Potter, I am going to the Ball with Harry Potter. Ohmigod, ohmigod, ohmigod!" screamed Ginny, wildly hopping around the sixth year Gryffindor Boys Dormitory.  
  
Colin gazed at her apparently inexhaustible energy, with unwilling admiration. Finally he snapped. "Virginia Marie Weasely! Sit down!"  
  
Ginny sat down cross-legged on one of the chairs and gazed at her friend delightedly. "Can you imagine, Colin? Hermione came to me and asked me if I would like to go to the Ball as Harry's date. Isn't that the coolest? Harry and Me. Oh wow!"  
  
As Ginny seemed to be prepared to start hopping again, Colin repressively said, "Yes, Gin, I am thrilled for you, but you do know that he isn't interested in you. You guys are going as friends."  
  
"Oh, whatever!" said Ginny dismissively. "Don't nitpick." Then she gasped anxiously, "Oh dear, Colin, what am I going to wear, what am I going to say to him, how am I going to act?" She bounced over to Colin, and slipped her arms around his neck. "Darling, darling Colin, help me out."  
  
Colin shrugged aggravatingly. "Maybe I will, and maybe I won't."  
  
Ginny pouted. "Oh not the face, Ginny Weasely. Not the face. Oh all right, I'll do it, but you owe me girl. Big time!"  
  
********  
  
"Oh dear, D-Day", said Harry grimly as he slipped on his new Emerald Green dress-robes. He carefully attached the cloak with onyx fastenings. He pulled a brush through his close-cropped mop, slipped his spectacles on his nose, and glanced at the mirror. "How do I look, Ron?"  
  
Ron who had calmly appropriated Harry's room for the preparation for the Ball gave his friend a cursory glance, as he pulled on his own dark gray velvet robes, and tidied his rumpled red hair. "Yeah, yeah, Harry, you look great. Let's go now. Did you remember to get the corsages?"  
  
Harry triumphantly held the corsages up. "Sure did. A yellow rose for Herm, and a white rose for Gin. Here you are. All right. Here goes nothing."  
  
The two boys walked to Hermione's room, which she possessed by the virtue of being Head-girl. Ginny had joined her this evening to get ready for the ball. They stood impatiently outside the door. Then the door swung open and their jaws fell. The two girls looked wonderful. A topaz satin dress robe sheathed Hermione's slim 5'5 frame, and offset her amber eyes and brown waves. The hair was loosely caught in a topaz pin at the top of her head. The slight makeup emphasized the fine features. She looked ethereally lovely.  
  
""Herm, you look beautiful." Said Ron kissing her gently on the lips, as he handed her the corsage.  
  
Harry stared at Ginny, fixated by her beauty. She was dressed in white chiffon dress robes, that emphasized every curve of her body. Her hair was piled on top of her head, and a few tendrils escaped to frame the porcelain of her skin. A smoky kohl pencil emphasized the dark eyes. That was the only make up she wore. Harry stepped forward and handed her the corsage, and then bent and kissed her softly on the cheek. A faint blush came up on her cheek and then receded as she walked into the ballroom on his arm.  
  
As the four of them walked in, heads turned and a collective gasp rose. Harry and Ginny were easily the best looking couple in the room, and most of the others would have given their eyeteeth to be with either. Harry felt Ginny tense against him, and gave her hand a comforting squeeze. At the other end of the room, Colin and Justin hugged each other with joy.  
  
"Knew that dress would knock him out." Said Justin with satisfaction. "She looks like an angel in it."  
  
"Yes, I think operation Matchmaker has been rather successful, don't you? I'm glad you broached Hermione with the idea. She seemed rather receptive to it, I thought."  
  
Absolutely unaware of the fact that they were being scrutinized and discussed, Harry and Ginny stood near the punch bowl, laughing and drinking. "It's rather a lovely night, isn't it? Would you care to come for a walk?" asked Harry courteously.  
  
"I'd love to." Smiled Ginny as he led her out. Hogwarts grounds were beautiful at the best of times, but with fairy lights and grottoes and music, it was sensational. Harry put his arm around Ginny and she drew closer to him, shivering slightly at the biting wind.  
  
Suddenly Ginny stiffened. "Oh, Harry, they are playing one of my favorite songs. Would you like to dance?" She turned her face to him, her eyes wide and appealing.  
  
"I'd love to, Gin. I didn't know you liked muggle music too. Let's go in."  
  
As they walked in, the first strains of the song broke out, and Ginny was held in the arms she had wanted to be held in for almost seven years. His cheek rested against her head, and his lips on her hair. And the strains of the song broke out  
  
"And I'd give up forever to touch you  
  
'Cause I know that you feel me somehow  
  
You're the closest to heaven that I'll ever be  
  
And I don't want to go home right now  
  
And all I can taste is this moment  
  
And all I can breathe is your life  
  
'Cause sooner or later it's over  
  
I just don't want to miss you tonight  
  
And I don't want the world to see me  
  
'Cause I don't think that they'd understand  
  
When everything's made to be broken  
  
I just want you to know who I am  
  
And you can't fight the tears that ain't coming  
  
Or the moment of truth in your lies  
  
When everything feels like the movies  
  
And you bleed just to know you're alive  
  
And I don't want the world to see me  
  
'Cause I don't think that they'd understand  
  
When everything's made to be broken  
  
I just want you to know who I am  
  
(break and solo)  
  
And I don't want the world to see me  
  
'Cause I don't think that they'd understand  
  
When everything's made to be broken  
  
I just want you to know who I am  
  
And I don't want the world to see me  
  
'Cause I don't think that they'd understand  
  
When everything's made to be broken  
  
I just want you to know who I am  
  
I just want you to know who I am  
  
I just want you to know who I am  
  
I just want you to know who I am"  
  
As the song finished, on an impulse Ginny lifted her face to Harry's and whispered, "I do know who you are. I don't love you because you're the Boy who lived. I love you despite that." Then he was kissing her with a fierce passion, gathering her in arms, and she melted. Finally they drew apart after what seemed an eternity, and dark brown eyes looked into bright green. Around them, the rest of the school was furiously clapping, but all Ginny could hear was one voice saying softly, "Ginny Weasely, I love you too."  
  
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